F185. Walking a Fine Line: Politics, Poetry, and the Workshop in a Divided America

B113, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Friday, March 29, 2019
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

 

“Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth,” June Jordan said in 1998. The status of language, politics, and truth is now more complex than ever, and our workshop students are responding with urgent, politically-engaged poems, which can mean navigating raw, difficult discussions. Professors of community college to graduate workshops offer best practices for fostering productive dialogue, keeping the course craft focused, and engaging students with varied political views.


Participants

Moderator:

Josh Robbins

Sandy Longhorn is the author of three books of poetry, most recently The Alchemy of My Mortal Form. She teaches in the Arkansas Writers MFA Program at the University of Central Arkansas where she directs The C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference.

Nicole Cooley is the author of a novel and six books of poems, including most recently Of Marriage. She is the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, CUNY.

Amorak Huey teaches writing at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He is author of three books of poetry: Ha Ha Ha Thump, Boom Box, and Seducing the Asparagus Queen. A 2017 NEA Fellow, he also has published two chapbooks and a coauthored poetry textbook.

Derrick Harriell is a poet and the author of Cotton, Ropes, and forthcoming Stripper in Wonderland. He is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, where he also works as acting director of the MFA program.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center